The present invention relates to a vehicle door opening device for moving a door to close from a fully-open position.
In a vehicle door opening device in JP 3,931,572 B2, when a sliding door in a vehicle body is closed from a fully-open position, a release actuator is driven with a switch to allow a fully-open latch for holding the sliding door in the fully-open position to be released, and a power drive is driven to allow the sliding door to close from the fully-open position. When a certain time passes after the release actuator is driven, the release actuator is instructed to stop and the fully-open latch is controlled to return to the rest before releasing.
However, in the vehicle door opening device in the patent, to ensure a series of actions of the fully-open latch from release starting of the release actuator to the rest, a time for controlling the release actuator is set to be longer, so that a returning sound comes out in a little time after the sliding door starts to close when the release actuator and fully-open latch return to the rest from the release state. Thus, after an initial sound comes out when the sliding door starts, a returning sound comes out of the release actuator and the fully-open latch, so that the sound is noticeable thereby decreasing its quality. The initial sound stands for a sound when a ricketying between the power drive and the sliding door and loosening of a cable for transmitting power of the power drive to the sliding door are absorbed. If a certain time is set to be shorter in order that time for generating initially actuating sound and returning sound is shortened, the release actuator is driven and stopped although the fully-open latch does not move to a position where the latch completely leaves the striker when actual voltage of a power source is low and when closing velocity of the sliding door is slow, so that the fully-open latch is likely to engage with the striker of the vehicle body and to make it impossible for the sliding door to close.